Elon Musk’s PAC spent about $200 million to help elect Trump, AP source says.

By DAN MERICA

WASHINGTON (AP) — Elon Musk’s super PAC has spent about $200 million to help the election Donald Trumpaccording to a person familiar with the group’s spending, funding an effort that sets a new standard for how billionaires can influence elections.

The Tesla billionaire and SpaceX CEO gave the vast majority of the money to America PAC, which focused on low-probability and first-time voters, according to the person, who was not authorized to publicly disclose the figure and spoke on condition of anonymity.

America PAC’s work was aided by a ruling from March from the Federal Election Commission, which paved the way for super PACs to coordinate their lobbying efforts with campaigns, allowing the Trump campaign to draw on the nearly unlimited cash of the nation’s best-known billionaire to boost voter turnout in the deep red parts of the country. country. This allowed the campaign to spend the money saved on everything from national ad campaigns to targeted outreach to demographics once dominated by Democrats.

The plan worked for both parties. Trump saw key turnout increases in battleground states, and late in the campaign, the president-elect credited Musk’s role in the race. “We have a new star,” Trump said at his election night party in Florida. “A star is born – Elon!”

“The FEC’s ruling cleared the way for us to get more benefits from the cash-strapped businesses that were going out and doing this business anyway,” said James Blair, the Trump campaign’s political director.

Blair worked as the primary bridge between the Trump operation and groups like America PAC — a far cry from the early days when super PACs had to decide their strategy without formally communicating with the campaigns they supported.

“By saving hard cash, we’ve been able to delve even deeper into paid voter contact and advertising programs,” Blair said. That, he added, included broad ad campaigns aimed at a national audience as well as — critically — more targeted campaigns aimed at boosting voter turnout among black and Latino men, two areas where Trump has made huge gains in 2024.

It wasn’t just Musk’s money that helped Trump. The billionaire businessman has become one of Trump’s top surrogates in the final months of the campaign, often joining the former president on stage. His endorsement gave Trump a clear opening into the universe of younger men who cheer for Musk.

Trump has also benefited from Musk’s ownership of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, and the company’s work to end many of the rules that have hindered Trump ahead of his 2021 launch. Like many conservatives, Musk is a fierce critic of social media. media efforts to counter disinformation, arguing that these efforts amount to pro-government censorship.

Musk is now expected to play a key role in a second Trump administration. The president-elect said he would put Musk, whose rocket company works with the Defense Department and intelligence agencies, in charge of a new government efficiency commission.

A challenge to conventional wisdom

The work between the Trump campaign and America PAC has potentially longer-lasting implications.

It could revolutionize the way presidential races are run, overturning long-held conventional wisdom about campaigns not having total control over their pitch program, the impact billionaires can have on politics and the effectiveness of paid canvassing operations.

One reason for the skepticism is that this model has failed spectacularly for previous campaigns, most notably during Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ run in the 2024 Republican presidential primary against Trump.

DeSantis, more than any other primary candidate, relied on an outside group to support his campaign. The group, Never Back Down, was affected by internal problemsand despite spending $130 million to promote the Florida governor, he was hurt by Trump and his campaign operation in Iowa.

One of the most persistent problems, however, was blurring the lines around what is legally permissible between the campaign and the outside group, an issue that has worried some in the governor’s official campaign.

That, however, was before the FEC ruling, meaning Trump and Musk’s group were operating in a completely different universe than they were a few months earlier during the primary.

The ruling “allowed for a much more direct line of communication in terms of canvassing,” Blair said. “That’s a real difference and a critical difference.”

Musk’s outgroup was founded in May, but it wasn’t until Musk endorsed Trump in July, after the former president survived an assassination attempt, that the group began more clearly getting out the vote. A week later, in an interview with a conservative podcaster, Musk acknowledged the new committee and a lot of top Republican operatives with ties to DeSantis joined the effort.

The group ran ads warning that if people did not oppose the election, “Kamala and the madmen will win.” The most important part of America PAC’s work was a Million dollar daily voter draw who took the group to court before a judge said it was allowed to continue. The sweepstakes and subsequent court case drew considerable attention, but much of America PAC’s work happened under the radar.

Door-knocking was arguably America PAC’s most impactful work, with Trump seeing turnout increases in key rural areas in battleground states. The work, however, was not without controversy.